image size 5-5/8 x 4 inches

 

Bradley & Rulofson operated the leading photography studio in San Francisco for decades. In addition to their regular portrait business, the partners published the landscape photographs of Eadweard Muybridge and distributed a large number of celebrity images.

“Drag” acts were a popular form of entertainment in the 19th century (although the popularity of the Kiralfy Bros. must have been rather limited, judging from the scarcity of information about them.) Like the previous photograph in the exhibition, this image represents people assuming both a different cultural identification and a different gender identification. At a time when scientists were wrestling with issues of racial classifications, acts like the Kiralfy Bros. must have raised interesting questions about the very nature of identity.